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Also, I know, more info is needed, gonna look at it soon...but, questions in the meantime are:

Should I expect that the...uh, drive train?... may be damaged if the axle's toast? I've replace plenty of front cv axles on older legacys and loyales, but is a rear Outback axle do-able and/or similar?

ANd here is a shot of the same knuckle but of the sway bar and other parts. I'm wondering how likely it might be that any of these parts need replacement. Perhaps someone knows if that one bent piece in the first photo is made as a "fail-safe", in that it bends before anything else, and takes all the force...??

And here's a picture of the other side, for comparison. This side should be fine by my view, and no impact in the snowbank smoosh.

I have a 2002 H6 Outback that I bought wrecked, rebuilt it, and recertified it, and registered it. It had been run off road at a high speed. One of the rear arms was bent like that as well - so maybe that suggests it's common? In my case I left that alone and figured I'd work on it later once I got it on the road if I saw any tire wear, pulling, or other issues.

125,000 when I bought it.
200,000 miles right now.

So far no issues after 70-80k, still runs great.

The good thing about a wrecked EJ25 is that suggests the engine and trans were running decent before hand, no guarantee though but a good start.

I have a 2002 H6 Outback that I bought wrecked, rebuilt it, and recertified it, and registered it. It had been run off road at a high speed. One of the rear arms was bent like that as well - so maybe that suggests it's common? In my case I left that alone and figured I'd work on it later once I got it on the road if I saw any tire wear, pulling, or other issues.

125,000 when I bought it. 200,000 miles right now.

So far no issues after 70-80k, still runs great.

So, you never replaced that bent arm? My tire is pretty askance, so I'm guessing it'd need to be replaced. Anyone have any tricks for this one? ALSO, I think the half shaft is fine! I would try to leave it in there and just replace the bent piece.

It looks like you may be in luck as the Outbacks have a different rear suspension than the Foresters and Imprezas, on which there are lateral links that come out from differential mounting and attach to the front and back of the knuckle, where they're all sandwiched by that dreaded lateral link bolt.

On the Outback, what you're looking at is what they're calling the left (driver's side) lower control arm. I wonder if it's worth heating and straightening and then doing a camber adjustment on that rear corner. Or perhaps a camper adjustment alone might do the trick.